Let's see how high I can get.

Today is one of those cold and dreary days that makes me want to just sit down in front of a fireplace and watch a movie, or read a book, or spend time with a close friend…maybe with a cat on my lap, or a blanket around my shoulders, or a blond haired cutie on my shoulder. I think a combo of all of those would be perfect.

Alas I don’t exactly have those things here…so instead I decided to see just how far up the mountainside I could get.

Mission accomplished…sorta. I did manage to get up further than I have before, but it wasn’t quite what I wanted.

Up the mountain are some fairly big ski areas and there are several gondolas that run up there. I have a couple little maps of the area and after checking them out a bit, I talked to Magnus a bit (considerably more on that in another post), gather my stuff, grabbed a friend and set off for the journey.

I was ready…I had comfy shoes on, plenty of cold weather gear (it’s like 10 C here right now), brought my phone, GPS, camera, binoculars, and map. Let’s do it!

We caught the Funi up the hill (after missing the bus…stood for like 30 minutes at the wrong stop…doh) and proceeded to wander around until we found the gondola.

It wasn’t easy to find. We had a rough idea of where it may be but no specific directions…on top of that the signs were “strange”. They weren’t that descriptive, not to mention were written in French. But the pretty little pictures helped.

We eventually found an electronic sign that said which lifts were running…and (mistakenly) thought we were on the right track.

Eventually we found the place…and it was closed. There are several gondolas that run up but the one we were at was decidedly closed…in fact it looked nearly abandoned. We took pictures, wandered around a bit, hit up a store, ran into some friends with a car and hitched a ride back to Bluche.

So here I am now…I got my apple juice, I got some pistachios, a couple of decent pictures, and a warm room listening to a mix of U2, The Police, and the Rolling Stones.

Not too shabby for a Saturday afternoon.

And yes…I did get higher up the mountain than I ever have before. But sadly, it was only a new record by a couple dozen meters. At least it’ll be easy to beat.

Yow…meters…degrees C…I’m becoming all European. Now that is a scary thought.


This, I felt, was a cool shot down between some houses. I wanted to walk down there but...didn't.


A typical selection of beer at a typical Swiss grocery store. As you can see there isn't much anything "dark" available. Sigh!!


Neil sitting in a gondola wishing it was moving up the hill.


The creepy looking entrance to the gondolas. The whole place seemed so run down and kinda scary. I loved it!